How One Remote Changed My Life

I live in a household with too many remotes. I admit that we have a lot of “toys” between the husband and I and sometimes those items come with a price. In this case the price is having a bunch of remotes.

It may not seem like a huge thing but it is. To turn the television on and actually be able to watch a show of any kind is an exercise in patience. There is the television remote, the receiver remote and the Dish Television remote. Add to those a remote for a dvr if watching a movie, an Apple TV remote if using the Apple TV and a Roku remote and I never seemed to have the right remote.

I am all about simplifying my life at this point and while I love being able to access each one of those avenues of entertainment it seemed excessive. There. I said it.

Aaron, our youngest, has always had the gift of helping the parental units out when it comes to simplifying things and he suggested that we buy one remote to control everything. Oh we have tried those before unsuccessfully but finally he found the perfect one for us and the great thing is that he set it all up for us a couple weeks ago when he visited. He chose the Logitech Harmony Smart Control Remote for us and it has been the perfect solution.

One button, folks, one button turns everything on. When was the last time I was able to use one button? I can’t remember. Even better there is an app I downloaded on my phone that works perfectly to access every function so now I don’t even need the remote. To say this has changed my life seems a bit dramatic but it is true.

I know I am privileged to have all of the things at my fingertips. Trust me. I do know that. I know that none of these things are vital to happiness or a fulfilled life. I don’t take my blessings in my life lightly and I hesitated to even write this post. But to say that my life has been changed would be accurate.

Children are good for a lot of things. Adult children are really good for helping out with house projects and dare I say getting us to clean out and simplify our lives. Aaron even fixed the front door that I had been whining about since we moved into this house late last summer. Bam! Now it closes and there can be no accidental cat escapades outside.

So tell me. If you have adult children what have they helped you with? Do you have any stories of how ordinary turned into extraordinary like my remote experience?

I agree with the saying that our children are our future. Especially when it comes to programming universal remotes.

Ok, I’m adding the remote to my wish list. We have the same issue, but with a 3 year old and a couple of moves, we have lost a remote or two and have to ‘manually’ do things at times. My youngest daughter is my go-to person for all things technical.

YES!!! You need one of these for sure. It has made life so much better and really it was not that expensive for the model we got . It would be a great investment. We always seemed to have missing covers to the battery compartments on remotes and had to tape the batteries in. 🙂

Oh my, I remember the remote dramas I used to have (before cutting the cable cord). There was a sequence that I had to get right to get the tv, Dvr and roku to play nicely. I often had the call the hubs for help, which he took as a sign of my uselessness. (I cut that cord, too)

My son is my tech guru but I’ve gotten proficient because he lives in NY and I’m in CA. My daughter is a travel guru. Something about booking sites fries my brain but she’s a genius at getting the best flights. We do need our kids to work the farm anymore but thank goodness they can work the technology. Great post BethAnn

You are very proficient with tech things—I can tell. And you are very talented and gifted in the business world. But it is always nice to have kids who can help us along the way with things, right? Your kids sound amazing—just like you.

My daughter has been wonderful at collecting our mail in Canada, sorting it and sending on the important stuff as we get everything changed to our Spanish address. She has also done banking for us and made sure everything was sent to the tax accountant. She has been wonderful. My son looks after my mom, stopping in at the care home every day, picking up supplies, bringing her treats etc. He is also amazing. Love my grown up children. As for remotes, I gave up a long time ago and if hubby isn’t home I just listen to the radio. The TV has got much too complicated for me!

Adult children are indeed wonderful and what great kids you have. I know it makes you feel so much better to know that your mom is being looked in on and taken care of. I laughed about your comment about the tv being too complicated. I get it.

Just happened yesterday. The radio was on the TV and I wanted to watch the Formula 1 race. Paul was out. So I thought, I can do this. I hit a wrong button and the everything was gone and I couldn´t even get the radio back on. I don´t like being in a quiet house and Paul didn´t get back until late. Yikes, I need to just leave it alone.

Ah, the remote the bane of my existence. I don’t do television but my parents do. In the old days grown up kids use to show up and paint their parents house and now we show up and handle their tech. I offered to paint but my mother knows me too well. They don’t believe me when I say I don’t understand how to program the television so I brought the tv people out to set it up and we went forward from there–my biggest success was turning on CC so my dad didn’t inflect his choice of programming on the neighbors. I’ll share your success with Universal remote with my 20 year old who has been in remote research mode.

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